Fantasy Baseball Today - Will Middlebrooks Joins The Show! Will There Be A 2020 Season? (05/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

A few weeks ago, we had former Marlins President and host of Nothing Personal David Samson on the show to discuss the MLB proposal so we thought it was time to hear a former player's perspective! We start off asking Will Middlebrooks what the biggest hurdle is at this point (3:50) and what the concern level is for current players. ... What would Will do if he were the owners or head of the players union (7:16)? ... Will the shortened season be tougher on hitters or pitchers (11:05)? Will the pitchers have enough time to get ready for the season? ... What are Will's thoughts on the universal DH (13:09) plus why would they ban the high-five? ... Will stud players still play everyday in the shortened season or will they rest more (16:30)? How about if there are doubleheaders? ... With teams set to face just their division and the same geographic division in the opposite league, whom does that favor (21:06)? What would Will's approach be in a shortened season? ... What are his thoughts on the cheating scandals surrounding the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox (25:56)? ... How would Will Middlebrooks describe Mike Trout in his own words (29:43)? ... What's the deal with the Red Sox mascot (35:30)!? We end the show answering your questions! ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, hit the wall, grand slam. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Welcome back, everybody. This is Fantasy Baseball today. Tuesday, May 26th. Frank Stamphill here, along with, Adam Azer and Scott White. How was the Memorial Day weekend fellas? I saw a video of Scott teaching a parrot, his Michael Cain impression. So I wanted to make sure everything was all right, Scott.

Yeah, yeah, it was that kind of weekends. I've had a lot of fun with that parrot. It's my favorite toy that my kids have. It just repeats everything you said. And as I said on the show last week, I just run my mouth a lot when I'm at home. I love to hear myself talk. So it's good to have a toy there that gives it. back to you.

Adam, how were things with you? Did you fire up the chicken burgers? I did. I made some delicious chicken burgers. Had them for lunch today as well. So I got two meals out of it. I sanitized some groceries as per usual. Played with my kid in our quasi backyard, shared backyard.

And yeah, it was a productive weekend. We did a little spring cleaning, I guess. Productive weekend. Fantastic. We're not alone. However, a few weeks ago, we had former Marlins' president. and host of nothing personal, David Samson on here to discuss the negotiations between the MLB and the Players Union.

So we figured it made sense to have a former player on to give us the other side of the coin. We welcome in at World Series Champion and Baseball Analyst for CBS Sports HQ, Will Middlebrooks. Will, how are you holding up? Hope you and the family are staying safe with everything going on, man. Yeah, we're safe, but we're safe in regards to our health. But my wife and I were trapped in here with a 19-month

old and a five month old. So whatever you consider safe, I guess, yeah, we're healthy, but we're losing our minds. Wow. I can't relate as much. These two definitely can, but it does, it's very loud a lot. A sneak peek. My 19 month old has learned how to swan dive off the couch, so I'm back diving for things. Now, I retired. I'm still diving for things. I have a 20-month-old, and in one week I'll have a newborn. So it sounds like I'm going to have my work cut out for me, Will. Thank you, buddy. We'll talk about this later.

I got some good tips for you. Oh, all right, nice. Will, before we get into the nitty gritty, I've got to ask what it's like to be on somebody's fantasy baseball team. Is it something you would hear about from the fans? Or is it something, did you care at all at the time while you were playing? While I was playing, I mean, I'm not going to say I didn't care. I mean, if I play well, people are happy.

So that's how it works, right? So you hear both sides of it. Hey, man, you carried me this week. Great job. Or, hey, man, let's pick it up. Whatever you're eating before the game, don't eat that anymore. And push it up and maybe not swing the slider in the dirt. Have we all, the three of us, all had Will Middlebrooks on a fantasy team before?

Oh, definitely. Yeah, I'm sure. It's been a good seven, eight years since I was blessing your lineups. But maybe one point. All right. Here we are, the wild world of 2020, hoping we get a baseball season in. The MLB and the Players Union are apparently meeting again today on Tuesday, May 26th to talk finances. Will, what do you think the biggest hurdle is going to be to get things going here?

Is it the financial situation? Is it the player testing and safety? Is it something different altogether? What do you think the biggest hurdle is here for both sides? I think number one for everyone has got to be safety and health. I mean, we have to get the correct testing in order, which supposedly the same company that handles the PED testing and then drug testing is MLB is paying for the COVID testing as well. So, I mean, you're going to be having to test guys every other day at least. So I know David was calling for contact tracing.

I don't think that's going to be able to be a thing. But you're not going to be able to look at every guy and figure out exactly who they're with, when they're with them 24-7. I just don't think that's possible. But back to the money side of things, which is, I just don't think the 50-50 revenue sharing is a good idea, not for the players. And the biggest issue here is there's no trust between owners and the PA, the Players Association and the players. There hasn't been since the first CBA in 1968. It just hasn't. The trust isn't there.

They work against each other during the season. Yeah, rah, rah, we're together. And then when negotiations are here, they can't stand each other, right? because everybody wants more money with less work. That's how it works, right? That's in every business, especially multi-billion-dollar businesses. So I think what's hurting the owners here is they agree to the pro-rated salary in spring training. And the players are going to hold that against them.

They know with the new CBA coming after 2021, they don't want this to be held over their head if they agree to what is essentially a salary cap this year. I'm sure you've talked, you have people you're in contact with from your playing days in the game still. do you talking to them do they seem worried and you know i don't necessarily mean about the prospect of a season though you know that's part of it too but also the health conditions do they seem worried about these things uh it depends on how you talk to so if we're talking to the older veteran player he's got he's got a kids he's got a wife he has a family to take care of uh health is a bigger issue now if you start talking to the younger guys who are 21 22

they're single guys, no kids, all they have to worry about is playing in the big leagues. That's literally all they're worried about at that point in their life. So it's going to affect them a lot more. It's going to affect the older guys with families a lot more. There's going to be a lot more on their plate to worry about. But the young guy just want to play. They don't care.

The money is not a big deal to them. They're not making millions of dollars. They're just there for the opportunity to make a name for themselves in the big leagues. Yeah, but like you said, they're not making millions of dollars. You know, a lot of times you hear these are billionaires and millionaires arguing. But it's not necessarily true, right? Because some of these guys really do need to get paid, right? Absolutely.

I mean, that's a tough spot we're in. Regardless of the situation, the players are going to look greedy and the owners know that. And then they can use that against them, especially in the media. And that's just how it is. because in the business like this, the PA is there to stand up for the players. This is a business. And I know it's hard times for most people in our country right now, in the world right now. But that aside, it's not that we don't care about that.

Or the players don't care about people not being able to put food on the table. It has nothing to do with it. This is just guys doing business and making business decisions and trying to do what's best for their league and their future. So what would you do? If it came to the point where they said, look, the pro-rated thing's not. not going to work. Let's do a 50-50 rev split or something like that. What would you do? What would you recommend the union leadership do? Well, I mean, that's what the owners are already saying. I mean, I don't know what is being discussed today. That's where it gets tough. It's because

this group of leadership in the Players Association has never had to deal with anything like this before. The last group were the people that dealt with the lockout and all that in the mid-90s. This group hasn't ever had to fight like this for their players. So Tony Clark has been questioned a lot. His leadership has been questioned a lot by ex-players, current players. I was a player rep for a couple of years. I had no problem with him. I thought he ran things the right way.

He's in a tough spot to make everyone happy. Anybody at the top or a president of something is going to be in a tough spot. You can't make everybody happy. I get that. But yeah, I mean, they're going to have to grow some Cajonis, I guess. If this is, if they say 50, 50 revenue shares all we can do, then they're going to have to really figure out, like, all right, moving forward to negotiations

and after next season, is this going to hurt us? If so, then we're not playing. And I think a lot of players, I think players are 50-50 on that too. There's a lot of guys. Like I said, the younger guys want to play. The older guys, their bank account looks fine. They'll be fine not playing. Now, then you start worrying about service time and content.

contract years and look, how is this going to alter a season? Well, look at guys who they're playing for the next contract next year. So even if it's an 80 game season, like that's a very, that's half a season to do your thing and earn those hundreds of million dollars that you want to make. So you say the owners realize that the players will probably look greedy over this. But at the same time, the owners have to realize that if there's a perception, the season gets canceled mainly for financial reasons. I mean, that's going to do the sport a major disservice, right? Yeah, you would think so, but do you think people are, when say we don't play this year, you think next year there's going to be a ton of people that say, I'm not watching baseball now. There's going to be some, but a majority of people are still going to watch the game.

I mean, I've been hearing about it for two or three years now, the dying sport, it's dying, it's dying, no, it's not. not, it's making more and more money every year. It made a record like almost $11 billion last year. It's not a dying sport. There's more people with a voice now on social media who are able to complain about it. And we hear that more. That's why we think it's dying. The perception, though, was that 1994, Scott, correct me if I'm wrong here. 1994 really set baseball back, right? But that's the perception I have, yeah. Yeah. I hope it doesn't come to that, you know. Do you Do you think they'll play will?

I'll just ask you that. I do. I think they'll come to agreement. I have no idea. I really hope they just go back to the agreement in spring training when this happened with the per rated salaries. I think that's the best case for everyone. The owners are still saving money.

They're still paying, yes, they're going to lose money. They're going to take a hit. Everybody's going to take a hit this year. But I think you just out of good faith. And owners want to talk about trust. well, let's do what we agreed on in spring training and move on and have a season and keep baseball alive, right? Like, this is kind of like a make or break week, right? If they want to fit everything in on time, the short and spring training get the season started by, you know, 1st of July, 4th of July, start of July, whatever it is. This is kind of the week. It has to, they have to come to terms, right? I agree. I think it's got to be done this week, maybe early next week, for these guys to have at least 15 days of spring training. I think this is going to be a lot of tougher on hitters than pitchers. If you notice in the first two weeks of spring training, the pitchers are blowing people away. Well, pitchers don't have to have timing. They don't need live hitters in the off-season to be ready to pitch. Hitters need to see live pitching. There's no substitute for that in a batting cage off a T or flips or a pitching machine.

So hitters are automatically behind. So these guys have been able to stay in shape. The pitchers have been able to stay in shape. They've been able to extend themselves and throw bullpins. All they need is a catcher, right? Yes, they'd love to face hitters. I get that, but that's not going to set them back a whole lot as long as they're still throwing and extending themselves

and getting their pitch count up. Hitters aren't going to be able to face that unless they want to face the high school kid throwing 81 with two pitches. It's just not the same. So the hitters are going to need at least two weeks. weeks to get that timing back. That's interesting that you say that it'll affect the hitters more than the pitchers because I think we were all assuming the opposite.

Maybe more from like a workload standpoint. Like do you think the shortened spring training that they're talking about? Do you think that's going to be enough time for pitchers to get ready? Or do you think there will be a change in the way pitchers are handled at the start of the season based on that? Yeah. Well, these guys have kept up their throwing program the same as when they were at spring training. these guys come to spring training

they work out they throw a bullpen or they pitch in a game and then work out that doesn't change for them if they have a catcher and they have someone to play catch with and somewhere to work out that doesn't change their routine for them other than facing live hitters and they could face high school hitters

college hitters they could do that and it still be the same workload and pitch count for them but hitters don't have that opportunity to face a big league pitcher but big league stuff and be able to get that time. Will, one of the rule changes

we keep hearing about in this proposal is it sounds like there will be a designated hitter in both the American League and the National League. What are your thoughts on the Universal D.H? I love it. I love it because, I mean, obviously I was a position player so I love offense, right?

I love homers. I love this era we're in, a launch angle and all this. I love it. So as much of a baseball purist, I guess I am in baseball in his like purest form. I don't like seeing a pitcher at the plate. I don't need a guy to bun up a guy over to second base with one out. 90% of these guys are out. Yeah, you have Lorenzo and you have Mike League.

Like these guys play positions and, we're position players in college too, so they can hit. There's a handful of guys that are fun to see hit. But these guys are out and you're starting to pay these pitchers a lot of money now to be pitchers. And you don't want these guys getting smoke with 98 in the ribs and missing three starts. So I think GMs and managers,

these guys are going to not like to see these guys at the plate. And it's going to extend some careers for some older guys who maybe lose a step up on defense, eventually like a Joey Votto, those guys, and able to just prolong their career. Yeah, well, there's another rule proposal. I don't know how firm it is, but about eliminating the high five.

And first of all, I just discovered this weekend. I don't know if you guys are aware of how the high five started. Apparently, Dusty Baker in 1977 hit a home run and high fived the next batter. And that was the beginning of the high five. Amazing, did not realize baseball started that trend. But like, how are you going to get players to not high five? What are they going to do when somebody hits a walk off home run? I thought that was like unbelievable.

You're testing these guys so much. I just feel like it's a lot to ask for them to not make any contact with each other. What do you think we'll see? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what you're going to see. They're going to have to get really creative. I don't know if they're going to draw signs into the dugout. I don't know. I have no idea, but they can't chew sunflower seeds.

They can't spit. They can't high five. I understand the times we're in. like it needs to be that detailed for a season to happen. I get that. But this is a little much. If these guys are being tested as much as they should be, I think they should be able to high five and it not be an issue

because if there's anyone that's sick, we're going to know who's sick and they're not going to be at the stadium. Yeah. I mean, this is going to end up being a distraction more than anything because they're going to be focused on not doing the wrong thing. I don't want to be fine 500 bucks or more because I high-fived my buddy for a grand slam to win the game. Come on.

Well, it's funny because among the list of things that were outlawed slash discouraged or that they're talking about, I noticed fighting was in the list as if fighting wasn't discouraged before. Oh, it's, we have to social distancing, guys. We can't fight now. Yeah, I think, I don't think it's quite that premeditated. No, no showering at the part. Yeah. So they're talking about roster expansion. mansion and they're talking about a condensed season. We still don't know the extent of either. Right now, the leading idea seems to be like an 80 game season, which wouldn't mean much condensing of the schedule at all. But if they expand that, which it seems like the players would prefer, maybe there would be. If it is condensed, if there's something like weekly doubleheaders or fewer off days, whatever, do you see regulars sitting more?

often as a result or because the season's going to be shorter either way and the stakes on every game are going to be higher. Do you think teams will mostly just stick with their regular starting eight starting nine? Yeah, no, I think the studs, the star players, those guys, they're not going to, I think they'll get less days off just because it's going to be less of a workload. It's half the season. So they're going to be expected to be out there probably 13 days out of 14. You know, you might get a day off every two weeks, but I mean, some of those star players aren't going to take any days off. You see these guys playing 150 plus games a year. So what's 80 games, right? I think it's the more of the fringe guys that aren't superstars, the younger guys. Those

are the ones that are going to be easily replaceable and interchangeable. So like you said, I mean, with the stakes as they are, if you go on a 10-game losing streak, eight-game losing streak, your playoff chances might be out the window. So, and vice versa, if you get hot and you win 10 of 12 or something like that, you have a really good chance of setting yourself apart from the rest of the squad. So it's just going to be interesting.

I think it's going to be fun to watch just because it's going to be so different. Specifically talking about weekly doubleheaders, though. How hard is it to play in both games of a double header? I'm sure it's something you've done before at some level, right?

Absolutely, it is tough. And, you know, in the minor leagues, they've thrown around the idea of seven inning doubleheaders, which I think that would be a great idea. obviously in the big leagues they've never done that. The minor leagues, they do seven-inning double-headers,

which we loved because you save four innings, your pitchers save themselves. And it's just a shorter day for two games, obviously. But nine-inning double-haders in the big leagues are a grind. I mean, a grime, a day-night double-headers. You're at the field. You get there for the one o'clock game at 8 a.m. And then you leave at midnight.

So it's a long day. and then you have most likely going to have a game the next day too. Yeah. But you still think that's something most star players would be able to handle? Younger star players. Younger star players. That's going to be tough. I'm curious to see if they actually go through with the double headers like that once a week.

We've got to think there's going to be rainouts too. Yeah, yeah. There's going to be rainouts. We're not going to really have to worry about the snowouts this year starting in July. So there's definitely going to be rainouts. I'm curious to see how they play those games at the end of the season or make them up. That's going to be something the players association is going to have to figure out as well. I was a player rep for two years in Boston.

I was the youngest guy there. I was the only guy with under, I don't think. I think everyone else had been arbitration. I was so young my first year. And it was such a veteran-oriented team. And they said, well, you're going to be our player rep because we want you to learn how everything works. And I'm like, yes, sir, whatever you say. I'm just a baby.

Did Mr. Poppy Ortiz? You tell me what's to do, and I'll do it. And that's how I learned the ends and the outs. So I always, the point I'm getting to is I had to, when we had rainouts, I had to call the other player rep from the other team and figure out when we were going to play. Oh, I didn't realize that the player reps do that. Yeah. That's your job as a player rep. So Evan Longoria was a player.

for the raise and I remember I had to call them and I was like I was this kind of cool I'm I love Evan Longoria I love watching them play oh cool here's this cell phone number I want to call them up but um yeah so they call and they they talk to the managers and the rest of the team and here's the date where we play is an off day at the end of this series we're going to play on that off day things like that ever get contentious that he tried try to get competitive advantages or anything like that oh yeah for sure I mean guys would say like no like we're not playing that off day we have we have a 10-game road trip right after that. We need that day off. We can't play there. Well, let's play

this thing. Well, no, we have, you know, it's just back and forth. And eventually you just have to bring up something. So I wanted to ask you about the possibility of teams just playing their division plus the corresponding division in the other league. You know, ALEs plays the ALEs and the annalys. And you'll end up playing same teams a lot. Seeing the same pitchers maybe a lot. Do you think that will have a big impact? Would that help the hitters more than the pitchers, or is that much to do about nothing? What do you think about sort of a condensed schedule where you're only playing a third of the league? Yeah, no, that's definitely going to be tough on, definitely going to be tough on the pitchers.

Obviously, as a hitter, the more you see guys, you tend to hit better against the guys in your division than when you play interleague play. You haven't seen a guy. You've maybe have six or seven of bats off. I mean, you're five years in the big leagues, so you're not familiar with their stuff. So, yeah, if you can see a guy get 40 at bats off him in a season, the second half of those at bats, you're going to be much more comfortable and you know what he's going to do to try to get you out.

It's as simple as that. So as a player yourself or a former player, how would you approach a season if you knew it was only going to be half as long? I know you've talked about pitchers. You feel confident they've been keeping up with their normal schedule. But I have to think it would be different going in, knowing it's going to be shorter. And, you know, you brought up the weather aspect, too. You're starting midsummer as opposed to when it's still cold in some places.

Yeah, I'm going to prepare the same. I'm going to work out the same. It's still baseball. I'm not going to come back and play a different sport. It's just half the season. So I'm not going to do anything different. Now, quarantine life might change your workouts a little bit, but mentally and in the cage in prepping for whatever teams you may be playing in your division,

you have an idea of that once they tell you what the divisions are going to be, you're able to start doing video work and studying those pitchers and getting ready for those teams. I'm going to do everything exactly the same if it was twice games. So, yeah. What about, like, if you get off to a slow start, knowing there's not going to be as much time to make up for it? Could you see panic slipping in and maybe things getting,

unraveled pretty quickly. It depends on the player. I mean, some of these veteran players, you don't see any panic. You can see a guy go 0 for 15, which you don't see it happen very much with the star players. That's why they're star players, right?

With the younger players and the guys trying to solidify themselves in the big leagues and earn a spot, knowing that if there's expanded rosters, if there's all these guys just waiting to take your spot, Yeah, I think there's going to be a little panic with those guys. The star players, the Mike Trouts, those guys, like, no, they're not worried about losing their job, losing their spot. The team needs you, and you're good enough to know at this point in your career, I'm going to get out of this.

It's baseball. The round bat, round ball. It's not following. I'm not seeing the ball well, whatever it may be, and I'll get it back. We're having a hard time wrapping our minds around the idea of how different stat lines, would look if it's only basically half the season because you think about how players numbers look at the all-star break and sometimes they're ridiculous. You go back to 94, a season that was still over 100 games and you had Tony Gwynne threatening to hit 400. You had Matt Williams threatening

to break the single season home run record. Like you had some wacky things going on. And of course, on the other side, you look at Jack Flaherty's ERA at the midway point last year. You Darvish. And just it's this year's really going to. to throw us statistically, right? It is. I think we're going to find ourselves at the end of the year saying, wow, he had 30 homers. Let's multiply that by two. Oh, and I think that's how some GMs are going to attack contracts for next year. They're going to have to say, well, what would he have done over a full season? Even though you don't know, he could have gotten hurt, he could have gotten cold, they could have gotten hotter. Who knows? But that's how they're going to have to

look at contract stuff and the agents as well saying like well look he had 30 homers was he going to hit 60 you can't say he wasn't because he was hot for 80 games right so it's going to affect a lot of things a lot of different opinions moving forward and like you said a lot of pitchers look at flared like guys guys having two halves that are completely different you just we're just never going to know i guess we're here talking with former player world series champion will middle brooks he covers baseball here for CBS Sports HQ. Thanks again for joining us here on fantasy baseball today. And Will, I wanted to ask you something aside from, you know, the shortened season here that we're expecting, how do you feel about these cheating situations that have come up the past couple of

years? Because I'm sure you've seen things as a player and we've heard, okay, cheating has been around. It's been part of a game, stealing signs. But it's never, I don't think, you might know more than I do. It's never been done to this extent with the technology in order to steal signs. So, and banging trash cans. What do you think about everything that happened with the, not only the Astros, but the Boston Red Sox, and I'm sure many other teams in baseball as well. Right. Yeah. No, the thing, the deal with the Astros, man, that's, well, let me start with the Red Sox. So MLB is very thorough with investigations when it comes to cheating, as we know. So first things first, they said they didn't find enough.

information. I believe that. I think they found the Red Sox doing what every team does. And that is, and I'm not just saying this because I played in the organization for seven years. I know that's, I get yelled out on Twitter a lot for defending the Red Sox in the situation because they think it's because I played there. But Red Sox were doing what every team does. Their video guy is up there to decode things. That, that is part of it. You want to, you want to know the catcher signs. Okay, this picture comes out of the bullpen. All right, Chapman. Chapman's coming out. He's coming out for the ninth. Okay, he likes to shape to third sign with a guy on second base.

Now, when I'm on second base, I can relay that to my hitter, and he knows when 102's coming, or he knows when a 90-mile-power slider's coming. Now, let's look at the Astros. They're taking a live feed and letting you know what pitch is coming from the dugout or from the video room. I think that is crossing that line that shouldn't be crossed. guys have been stealing signs from second base for a long time we're in this technological age we're in i think every team is going to take advantage of that uh the amount you can the the video system that they have in the program for the mb you can literally be so detailed i'm

going to go look up my name i'm going to look up a sunny day in june the wind is blowing over 10 you can get so detailed and you can find every pitch in that And so why wouldn't they look for this advantage? Every team is doing it. So why would you be like, oh, that's teetering on the edge of the fence? I don't know. But every team's doing it. Every team is decoding and trying to get signs.

So you can use them on the field, not use them from the back video room and bang a trash game. That's too much. But so let me just get clarification. The difference in your mind between what the Red Sox and presumably most teams, if not all teams are doing, and what the Astros were doing was just that they were doing it from the dugout, the bases were empty, and they're still stealing signs. Because in this Red Sox scenario,

or the scenario you just gave, you're still using technology to tell someone what's happening, but that player basically has to get second base in order to be able to relay it to the hitter, right? Right, and then a lot of times, I mean, you have the opportunity as a pitcher and catcher to make your signs undetectable as well. So you can change your signs.

if I'm in you know if no one's on base you're seeing more teams now give multiple signs with no one on base because they're worried about this happening right so if no one's on base and I'm able to know when a guy when hitters are really good now I think we know this they're starters going seven innings though in 98 to 100 with a hard slider at 91 and a good change up it's not fair it's really hard we're hitting in the big leagues is really hard and so there's a select handful of guys that are really really good at but so so know what pitch is coming and a lot of your bat's it's just it's such such a such an i'd still be playing you know we've spent the last like five weeks hearing about how great michael jordan is deservedly so can you just put mike trout into words um i mean he will go down as the best baseball pair at all time i so i when i played in the arizona fall league in 2011 it was after my A year in Portland, Maine, had a really good year, and went to the Arizona Fall League to get some more at bats and play against some of the best competition and best prospects in baseball. Now, listen to the team that I had. I was on the Scottsdale Scorpions. Our outfield was Mike Trout in centerfield, Bryce Harper in left field, Joe Panic at second base, Brandon Crawford at shortstop. You remember Darren Ruff? He ended up going to Asia.

playing really well over there. Derek Norris. Now, we had no pitching. We didn't go to the playoffs. All right. This was like right after Trout debuted in 2011. I think he came up in September, played a few games,

and then he came to the Fall League. And, I mean, he was exhausted. He played a full season in the minor leagues and then played an extra month in the big leagues. And he got there. And he only hit like 240. Now, don't hold that against me. He didn't have a great year there.

Or in Arizona. I live with them there. He was my roommate. And this kid is the most simple. I think this is why he's so good is he's just so simple. He plays video games and eats candy. Like that's, he's really good and mad.

I found that out the hard way. And this guy, I literally, and I'll tell everyone forever, like he's so good at hitting because he doesn't overthink it. He literally sees the ball hit the ball, and he's been blessed with the ability to do what he does at such a high level. If you look at the swing, it's barely changed since high school.

I don't know, man, because when I was young, I ate a lot of candy and played a lot of video games that never really helped me. When you were playing with them, I don't know if you even remember the answer, but who at the time did you think was going to be better, Harper or Trout? At the time, Harper. Really? I mean, Harper, he's grown up a lot since then. I mean, he was like 18 or 19 years old in that And I mean, he would get into it with a lot of guys because he's just, he rubbed a lot of guys the wrong way because we didn't know how to, to understand him and take his personality. And he's just always been that guy.

He's always had media on him since he was 13 years old. A lot of that was brought on to himself. I understand that too. But I also got to play against him a lot in the big leagues and get dinner with him and hang out outside of baseball and just see how much he had grown up. And, I mean, we all see how much he's grown up from his recruiting. year until now. Everything's different and the way he carries himself. But back to your question, Harper 100% I thought was going to be a better player.

He struggled the first half of that season. And then turning point in that season, we were at the Rockies spring training complex. And we were, it was a tie game going on the night. And he goes, hey, boys, if I get up and he was fourth off that inning. Hey, boys, if I get up, we're going home. I'm hitting a walk off to center. and we're like, all right, Bryce, you know, whatever, buddy. Yeah, you're hitting 140, shut up.

First pitch, dead center. Swear to God. It was one of the coolest things I've seen up into that point. And after that point, he went on to hit like 400 the rest of the season. It was pretty insane. Getting us back, I guess, to the Astros scandal after that fun aside, you mentioned that

you might still be in the big leagues if you knew what pitch was coming how do you think this is going to affect Astros hitters now that they've been caught and I'm thinking more the higher-end types

that we care about in fantasy like should we be downgrading them and if so how much well I mean we're talking about like the Altovaez Correus maybe even like Jordan Alvarez that's a really good question

I mean, I think those guys are also studs. I think they're really good. I think they would have been good without that. I think that gave them a comfort at the plate. I don't know how often they knew what pitch is coming. That's the thing. If you were to tell me, well, they knew 80% of the time, then I would say they might have a down year.

I don't know, though. I don't know if it was half the time. None of us know. But I think the studs on that team are still going to be studs. I think Regman, I think El Tuvae, yeah, I think Springer's still going to hit 240, but he's going to have 30 homer, or not this year, but in a normal year, like, that's just who he is. He's going to post.

He's probably going to be a 240 hitter, but he's going to have clutch hits and homers and RBIs. That's just who he is. We were looking at some of the road numbers for these players, because the advantage they had was only at home, right, with the video room right there. So if, you know, if they look like the same player on the road, that's a pretty good indicate. Yeah, they had the extra live feed. So on the road you have, you only, you don't have a extra game feed. You just have the actual like TV broadcast. So there's a delay. There's like a slight delay. So it's impossible to tell the team, tell your guys what's coming that second

because it's three seconds delayed. It's too late by the time you tell them. But at home, they had the live feed where they knew it was on real time. All right, listen, I got to ask one more like super controversial question here. I hope you're ready. I understand why the Red Sox mascot is green because he's Wally and they got the big green wall. Why doesn't he have like big red socks? How do they, like that is such an obvious miss?

He's the Red Sox mascot. I see red shoes, but he should have the stir up. You know, he should have big red socks up to the knee. Okay, so how ridiculous does the mascot are ready, right? So let's put knee-high socks on them and make them look worse. All right. It's a really good question, actually. It's a very good question.

But why don't the white socks wear white socks? Well, nobody takes the white socks seriously. You guys are the Boston Red Sox, you know? You got to set an example for the white socks. I had to answer that question with a question only because I don't have an answer. It's a great baseball mystery. We'll never know. great mystery.

Mystery will also be whether or not this season will play out. Will we thank you so much for coming on. The final one I have for you. And I think you answered it already, but will we see baseball here in 2020? Yes. I truly think they get something done towards the end of this week, hopefully sooner, who knows?

And let's get two weeks of spring training and get after it. I want to see 80 games. We all want to see 80 games. What's more American than some baseball on July 4th if we can make that happen? looking forward to it, hopefully getting that done. Will Middlebrooks, again, former MLB player, World Series Champion, current baseball analyst for CBS Sports HQ.

Thanks a lot, Will. We appreciate it. Enjoyed it, guys. Thank you. All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we are answering your questions here on Fantasy Baseball today. Already, we're back here on Fantasy Baseball today before we get to your questions, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Adam, I know you had a little something you wanted to say about the high fives. I think I know the solution

What do you get? Foam fingers Giant foam fingers You could touch just like kind of like E.T. You know touch index fingers That's the way to celebrate a home run. Adam

This between this and the mascot socks question Which Will Middlebrook said was a good question But I beg to differ I don't know what's going on here Adam That's ridiculous. How are they going to put them on like they're going to hand them to the guy who just jogged around the bases and wait for him to put it on before celebrating? It's absurd.

Yeah. I don't see why not. You know, you have it on the on deck. Everybody brings their foam finger to the on deck circle and throws it aside. When the bat is done, you either pick up the foam finger and bring it back to the dugout and put it in your designated place. Everybody's got their own, obviously, obviously.

And it's like a glove. And if you hit a home run. Why don't they just put on their glove? You know, you need more distance, Scott. Don't you know about social distancing? Gloves don't work. You need the foam finger. Yeah, whatever.

You got at least another foot and a half with a foam finger than you do with the glove. I love it. I'm all for the foam finger. And speaking of social distancing, I think we see some kind of creativity come out of that. If people really can't, if the players can't high five, I think we see some kind of, I'd love to see some kind of like cheerleader routine. Like after someone hits a home run, like everyone comes out of the dugout starts dancing some salsa or, I don't know.

I'd be all for it. Yeah, I could see that. I think they get creative with it. I've been watching some of the KBO. I like the cheerleaders. I think... The cheerleaders are not social distancing, are they? They're kind of a part.

Are they? Yeah, they're dancing on top of the dugout, but they're not on top of each other. It looks further in person, Adam. Yeah. Okay, and it looks close on TV. You know, it's good baseball. It looks like baseball, right?

The KBO. It's just... It's good. It's hard to get into it for me because I'm not rooting for anyone. but yeah, it's good. I mean, it's good to have on in the background. It's because you're rooting for the wrong team.

You should be rooting for the NC Dinos, obviously. They're in first place. Do you remember who I picked? I think you chose the Lote Giants. Okay, I think I probably called them the Lotton Giants. The little giants. Yeah, you called them the little giants at the time, but. Okay.

Scott, like Scott, why don't you want to have fun? What was wrong with the socks question? The Boston Red Sox mascot's not even red. The least he could do is have freaking red socks. Um, it was fine. It was fine. A little on the hokey side of fun, but I guess I probably don't have a right to criticize.

We have to balance each other out, Scott. We're yin and yang. Okay. Scott, if you ever want to bring the parrot on the show and you could just kind of go down the same route as Adam, we can just completely fall off the rails here. I was wondering if it was in reaching distance here. I could just grab it right now, but now it's not.

By the way, I don't know if you noticed watching that video. It got, you know, it wasn't viral or anything. I've never gone viral on Twitter. But, you know, I've got a good number of likes. In the video, I'm like tapping the table as I'm speaking to the parrot to get it to repeat my Michael Cain line. That's because if you have the slightest hesitation and sound, it's going to start repeating right then. So I'm not even, I don't know exactly what take it was that actually. took.

Probably embarrassed to admit, but there was a good amount of trial and error just getting the parrot to repeat the whole phrase, you know, once knew a man named Lorenzo, that phrase. Only spelled differently. Differently. It was really funny, Scott. It really was. Oh, man, I'm imagining Scott on a Saturday night. It's like 2 a.m.

Just pounding his keyboard, pounding in the spacebar trying to get the parrot to repeat his Michael Kane impression, which was a great one. again. But, you know, just got to make sure that you're, everything's good there, Scott. You're staying sane. I'm sane. There are some people who expressed concern, but this is, they don't, they don't know the life I live. This is, this is just typical Scott on a Saturday night. They don't know. Typical Scott. All right, let's answer some questions. Fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. And you can ask some questions on our Apple podcast review as well, which is where we're going to start. Our first question here comes from J.D. Cangrove. So a little J.

Davis from Marcana, little Joe Musgrove. Really enjoying the podcast, if you can't tell, take a look at my Markana, J.D. Davis, Joe Musgrove teams. I play in a head-to-head six-by-six holds league would love a five to ten minute deep dive on whomever you think is more attractive as a relief pitcher in a starting pitcher spot for ERA whip and holds between Freddie Peralta and Tyler Clippard. Oh, definitely Clippered. Peralta.

Okay, he was actually better. I'm thinking of overall numbers. He was actually pretty good just when he was working exclusively in relief, right? I should double check that. He wasn't? I'm checking right now. 401 ERA, 1.34 whip.

A lot of strikeouts, though. He looked great in the spring. There was a lot of, there was some hype there around Freddie Peralta, but as of now, we don't even know what his role is technically going to be. I don't think we knew heading into the season.

if he was going to be a starter or reliever. I think that was kind of still up in the air, their fifth starter job with the brewers. You know what I was looking at for, you know what I was thinking for Peralta? Last September, eight relief appearances, 186 ERA, which, you know, that doesn't mean much in eight appearances,

but he had 20 strikeouts in nine and two-thirds innings. Yeah, he's going to strike out a lot of guys, no question. Yeah. But Klipper, man, he just keeps going. He's up practically 40 now, right? And every year, he just puts up these solid numbers. You know, last year especially, last year is kind of reverting back to his prime with the 290 ERA.86 whip. Probably not going to be quite that good, but going to be good enough that he's going to be in a good holds position for his team.

Especially with the Minnesota Twins, I mean, a team that we do expect to be very competitive and have a lot of save, hold situations where Tyler Clippard can pitch in. again last year the 290 ERA 0.85 whip over a strikeout per inning at 9.3Ks per 9. He's 35, I said he's almost 4. He's 35. He feels like he's older than that.

He's getting up there. Adam, would you take Clippard or Freddie Peralta? You got to take Clipper. I mean, Peralta has to be good before I take him over someone who's been good. The only thing he has going for him is age. The last point I'll add on. on Freddie Paltow, I do think there is some sleeper appeal just in general in deeper leagues

because there was talk during the spring that he was working on a new curveball, I believe it was, and he had a really big performance in spring, and he was awarded a contract extension. So the Brewers clearly saw something that they were interested in. He had 15 strikeouts and 12 innings pitched this spring. So pay attention to the name. He's still young enough where maybe he can put it all together, but just in this format where you need holds some ERA and WIP help,

I will take Tyler Clippard as well. This next one comes from Hugh in St. Louis. I play in a head-to-head points league. I feel they do a good job as GM. I drafted pretty well, and I worked the waiver wire as I need it. My weakness is managing my lineup. I feel I make the wrong decision on who to start all the time.

Is the stud one start better than the fringe two-start guy? I try to always play my best players, but sometimes that two-star guy has great matchups, and you got to roll the dice. Sometimes I will start my bench hitter because he has seven games, good matchups, et cetera, instead of somebody who has five or six games with bad matchups. It seems no matter what I do, it goes the opposite way. Is this just baseball? Is there something you guys dig deep into to help you set your lineups? What do you think, Scott?

Yeah, this is something that used to drive me crazy when I first started. started playing and of course, you know, over the last decade or whatever I've been writing weekly start sit columns. But my rule that I've made for myself and that I try to express as often as I can in that column without it becoming, you know, tedious to say over and over again is just don't even mess with the studs. Their upside from week to week is so high. You made the heavy investment in them. you don't want to miss out on a big portion of what you paid for. That's going to frustrate you more. And more it comes down to what's going to frustrate me more missing out on.

And it's when the stud does studly things. And, you know, I think you're going to guess right more often than wrong. And I think in the case of a one-start pitcher versus a two-star fringe guy, that's especially true. And then you were like, we're in now where a fringe pitcher usually means an awful pitcher. And a stud means like a historically dom. prominent pitcher. And obviously the depth of the league's going to change your interpretation of what stud is. And so there is a little bit of judgment call there. But, you know, a guy you made a big investment in and has basically lived up to it, you shouldn't ever think twice about starting him. Scott, I've got to ask, though, what do you consider the cutoff as a stud pitcher, right? Like, who's, at what point do you just say, okay, I'm leaving this guy in my life?

lineup every single week. Is it a top 25 starting pitcher, a top 30 pitcher for you? Does it just change depending on matchup? Or do you just know, okay, look, these are the top 20 guys. If I have two or three of these guys, I'm leaving them in my lineup every single week. Yeah, I wouldn't want to put an exact cutoff on it because I think it's probably different from year to year. And of course, it's different depth of the league, like I said, it's different. How deep your waiver wire, how deeper shallow your waiver wire is. The starting point, I would say, heading into this year is the 35 pitchers I keep referring to. You know, until they do something to drop out of that class, and I'm sure some of them will,

I would not plan on start again. And that's another judgment call thing. When did they do? I think maybe a rough guideline for me, and it's just a rough one. It's not foolproof. But in a standard size 12-team league, let's say, 90% of it. ownership or more. I probably use ownership to guide me more than anything else. That makes sense. Adam, what do you think? Because I fall into this trap with hitters as well in

head-to-head points leagues and something we've talked about with some of our general strategy discussions is in points leagues, volume is king. So I do fall for at times starting that seven-game hitter over someone who might be a better player on a per-game basis who might only have five or six games. So I have fall in for that same trap as well. How do you balance that, basically? So in this scenario, the seven-game hitter has to be a worse player than the five or six-game hitter, obviously. Otherwise, this wouldn't really be a debate.

Six games versus seven games does not matter to me, typically. Five games versus seven games might. That could be a big deal because guys, it's one time. You can be talking about a four-game week. Now, remember, when you start a seven-game hitter, if he's not a great player, if someone you picked up off waivers, could easily sit one of those games, you know,

could happen. So I do not change my hitters all that much. I'm guessing there are two roster spots that I'm cycling guys in because most of the time my bench is for pitchers. So I don't really do that much of this, to be quite honest. Seven versus five would really make me think.

But I would also say that I've been doing fantasy baseball and fantasy football for so long. And just like you, I feel like I make the wrong decision every time. And there is,

you're going to remember the wrong decisions. You're not going to remember the right decisions typically. They're just going to feel normal. But when you make a mistake, it's going to eat at you a little bit. And that just happens.

It is so hard to predict fantasy points. So don't sweat it too much. As far as pitchers go, Scott said it very well. As far as hitters go, a one game difference in, you know, how many games they're scheduled to play in a week should not make that much of a difference in your

lineup. Fair enough. This next one comes from Lucas from the D. I am a second year fantasy baseball owner. I am in a very competitive head-to-head points keeper league, which has been running for about 10 years now. My biggest struggle is assessing young talent. I tend to draft the players I would deem more stable.

One example of this is I have a decent starting outfield. I have Mark Kana, Joey Moonshot, which I assume. is Joey Gallo, and Christian Yelich. I also have Andrew Benintendi, Kyle Tucker, and David Peralta on my bench. Do I drop a player like Peralta and go after somebody like Kyle Lewis

from Seattle who is on the waiver wire? It is a Keeper League in which you can keep players at the round. They were drafted or free agents at round 13 or 14. Any insight into this would be great. P.S. This is someone who has emailed us before. The Lindor 2 for 1 trade with Mike

Commission didn't pan out. Rider or die with Javier Baez. So what do you think here, Scott, when it comes to, would you drop someone like David Peralta for Kyle Lewis just because Lewis is younger and might have more upside? The bench is a place. It isn't so much a place for reserves. The bench in fantasy baseball, at least a typical, like, weekly league is a place to protect the players you don't want to fall into the wrong hands.

and so yeah upside particularly the dynasty context I think makes more sense than just a boring player now Kyle Lewis specifically for a points league I'm assuming there's some kind of penalty for strikeouts

I'm not sure that's really I'm not sure there's really enough upside there for that format especially that I would make that move for him specifically but like if I don't know how shallow it is but like if a Dylan Carlson is out there, even if you wanted to go for a prospect

who wasn't looking at a job yet, like a Jared Kalenik. In a dynasty context, I think that makes sense more than stashing away. Somebody like Peralta who probably isn't going to crack your starting lineup at any point. Adam, any difference there?

Because I typically tend to lean on upside and prospects on my bench just to stash these guys. And I think having someone like Ben Intendi and Kyle Tucker makes a ton of sense for your bench. David Peralta, I'm not so sure. Well, David Peralta in 2018 was a top 16 outfielder, 16th in points, 13th in Roto.

He hit 293 with 30 home runs. Last year, he had 275 with 12 home runs in 99 games. But before he went on the IL with a shoulder injury, he had an 881 OPS. He was batting 309 with seven home runs and 16 doubles. That was in 46 games. So he was actually hitting very well. Then he went on the IL with a shoulder injury.

He came back. He played 27 games. He didn't hit well. He went back on the IL. And then again on the IL to end his season on August 23rd. So he had shoulder issues all year and then had surgery. You could say that before that, he was going off of one top 16 season and then was backing it up. So I actually think there's some appeal to him.

I, you know, he's 32 and doesn't have a stable track record. Yeah, I wonder how deep the league is. You know, I don't think that David Peralta is the type of player you need to own if you have a good waiver wire. If it's three outfielder's and one utility or something like that, no. But I think he's a little underrated in a deeper league and he'll actually help you, whereas I don't think Kyle Lewis necessarily will. But in general, if it's a keeper situation, you're not really, caring about this year and you want to take a shot on a guy as opposed to David Peralta

who's probably got one good year left in him, if that. Yeah, I would lean towards stashing the guy in hopes of keeping a prospect. But I think Peralta is potentially underrated and might actually help you out. Fair enough. Final one. And this one is headed your way, Adam. Pocket Aces from Connor, Corn Dog. And he was referring to your conversation about baseball being boring. The issue is baseball was never meant to be not boring. I understand that the comparisons to basketball and football, et cetera, will lead you to believe it is boring. I'm currently listening to Scott White, and he is articulating exactly how I feel. Baseball was never designed to be similar to football and basketball. If someone isn't a fan of baseball,

my take is, see you later. I don't understand the obsession with gaining fandom. If you like the game, you like the game. Changes to the game are not going to make. make people who don't enjoy baseball start to enjoy baseball. I thought I had enough in my head to articulate a good, well-thought-out email, and now I'm just rambling. I love your show, and I love you, Adam. I love baseball because it's boring, because of its boring nature. I love listening to it as background noise.

I love watching John Lester struggle throwing the ball over to first base, and I love watching Matt Carpenter slap dirt on his bare hands before every pitch, even though it slows things down. In conclusion, I've had it with the baseball as boring conversation that seems to be all I hear for the past three years. I don't think baseball should try to be football or basketball, and I think it would be a better sport if it minded its own business. The end. Arsh words. Well, I love baseball, and I love it as background noise. I think it's a perfect sport to just put on while you're doing other things. Confession. Not so much anymore, but when I was single, I used to love napping to baseball on Sunday.

It was one of my favorite activities. I would be pretty tired from the weekend. I'd put some baseball on. I'd fall right the hell to sleep. And it was beautiful. Look, you're not going to make baseball into basketball or football. It doesn't have as much action. But it has trended toward a three true outcomes game that is not pleasing to the eye for most people.

And if you think I'm wrong, I think I'm crazy, it's a well-known fact that Rob Manfred wants to get away from that. He wants balls put in play more. So I think that's what it needs. And it does need to be picked up. In fact, I was watching Roger Clemens' record strikeout game against the Mariners. And just the amount of time that obviously was a quick game because it was like very low scoring and he struck everyone out. but the amount of time it took for him to throw each pitch, that's what we need to get back to.

We don't need these guys in the batters box taking so long. We don't need pitchers taking so long. We do need to speed the game up. And, yeah, we need to keep the ball in the park a little bit more and have more action on the field, and I think that would make baseball better. It's, you got to, I don't know, you got to love baseball to appreciate that.

It is a little bit slow sometimes. I get that. But I do think it's worse now than it's been in the past because it's walk, strikeouts, and home runs at a rate we've never seen before. That's a more nuanced take. And I can get behind that. Then the, you know, kind of hot, takey baseball is boring take.

Because I don't think any of that's wrong. I mean, there are ways it can improve, and there are ways that it's been better in the past. It's not necessarily like you need to put trampolines on the warning tracks or something. I wouldn't rule it out, though. But I mean, I'm kind of, I kind of feel like just because of the length of the season, no matter how short you make the games. If you may get them down to two hours, let's say.

I mean, who's watching a two-hour game every night even? I feel like it's always going to appeal most to kids and retirees just because they have the most time to devote to it. And the rest of us kind of enjoy baseball in a background sense where, yeah, maybe. Major games we'll tune in for. We'll keep up with highlights. We'll keep up with major happenings. Wait a second, though.

We're not sitting down and watching every game. Major games. What will you tune in for? A big prospect call-up arrival series. You would only do that. You would not do that. You would only do that because you're a fantasy analyst. That's the problem.

The only major games that anybody would just tune into because they want to watch baseball is a playoff game. Nobody can't care. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm sorry. I can't say nobody. People care. I mean, we just had Will Middlebrooks.

He was talking about how, you know, financially successful baseball has been recently. But a game that doesn't involve your favorite team. I just don't know how many people care about that Sunday night Cubs Cardinals game, you know? It's just... Oh, that's fair. Yeah, I meant for your favorite team. Your team calls the big prospect. Your team's playing its division rival.

Oh, I love it. It's in the pennant race or something like that. And you're probably tuning in more. That's what I was saying. Baseball is a very locally popular. popular sport. Yeah. People love their team.

They don't care so much on a national level during the regular season. And I don't know how you change that. I mean, if money weren't a factor, I really think the season should be like 120 games.

I know everybody would think I'm crazy. But it's just, there's so many damn games. How big of a difference would 120 make versus 160, though? I think it would make a big difference. You're never going to get like 16, committing to your watching your team.

or a day's slate of games once a week. The football has a serious advantage of that regard. It's just not that much of a time commitment, relatively speaking. But you know, you get up past like, I don't know, NBA season is what, 82, 81? How many coming? 82. 82. You know, even that, you're talking about three or four times a week, right?

Hey, man. And I guess people can handle that, but you lose, it's just not going to be the same popularity as football because of that. Yeah, I'm not going to be surprised if people are like, man, they should just make baseball 82 games all the time after this year. It will never happen, but it'll be interesting to see how well it's received. What was I going to say? Yeah, I don't remember. So we can wrap it up.

It was really interesting, whatever I was going to say. Probably something about foam fingers. Three things quickly. The baseball regular season should end August 31st, so it's not trying to compete with football. I feel like that makes a ton of sense and might make more sense for fantasy as well from a roto perspective.

A lot of people typically tune out once they're out of it a couple of months in. Second thing, true story. You're talking about in a normal season, right? Yeah, in a normal season. And I guess I would probably put it around like 130 games, 135, if you ended at August 31st. No regular season games in September.

True story, I watched Ronald Acuna's debut while I was at a Yankee game. I was streaming the game on my phone. So I know you guys mentioned just watching prospect call-up. So something, maybe it's because, you know, I study fantasy for a living that I was doing that, but I was genuinely excited for Ronald Cunia. And what was the final thing?

I think I'm kind of brain farting like Adam here. Yeah, it wasn't as interesting in whatever I was going to say. I'm sure it was about foam fingers. Oh, that it was interesting. All right, that'll do it on today's show. Thank you to Will Middlebrooks again for Scott. Adam, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.